Science on Saturday (Audio)

Particle accelerators have been revolutionizing discoveries in science, medicine, industry and national security for over a century. An estimated 30,000 particle accelerators are currently active around the world. In these machines, electromagnetic fields accelerate charged particles, such as electrons, protons, ions or positrons to velocities nearing the speed of light. Although their scientific appeal will remain evident for many decades, one limitation of the current generation of particle accelerators is their tremendous size, typically a mile long, and cost, which often limits access to the broader scientific community. Acceleration of electrons in plasmas, in particular in laser-driven plasmas, has been drawing considerable attention over the past decade. These laser wakefield accelerators promise to dramatically reduces the size of accelerators and revolutionize applications in medicine, industry, and basic sciences. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 33429]

Find out about both synthetic and molecular biology approaches to produce small nano-machines (nano-bots). The main building blocks for these nano-bots are based on nano-lipo-protein particles (NLPs). Nano-bots represent a unique solution for new approaches to vaccines, drug delivery and energy needs. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 32074]

Revolutionary changes to materials and structures are now possible with 3D printing, bringing concepts that were previously only imagined into reality. This breakthrough technology fabricates components by adding material layer by layer from the bottom up allowing for the creation of highly complex and previously unrealizable structures. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 32073]

A vast majority of the newly discovered human pathogens are viruses that have jumped to humans from an animal host ("cross-species transmission"). Find out how biologists and computer scientists have collaborated and used cutting edge ultra-deep sequencing technology to study the dynamics of a 2009 rabies outbreak to better understand emergent viruses, such as Ebola and Zika. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 32072]

In the last decade, the scientific foundations of a number of traditional forensic methods have come under increasing criticism by the scientific community, leading to their discontinuation or reduced effectiveness in criminal prosecutions. These challenges raise questions about the admissibility of certain type of evidence in current cases and the validity of previous convictions. We will discuss the basis of these issues and describe some of the work ongoing at LLNL to try and address some of them. In particular we will describe an entirely new science-based approach to human identification. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 32071]

Everything we can see and touch is made up of chemical elements as illustrated on the Periodic Table of Elements. The heaviest, naturally occurring element is uranium. Using high-energy particle accelerators, scientists have created even heavier elements extending the Periodic Table of Elements up to element 118. Also find out more about element 116, Livermorium, named in in honor of the scientists and research that has been done at LLNL since its discovery. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 31525]

Statistics is the science of data: measuring and assessing uncertainty and more generally, learning from data. Since scientific, technical, and social disciplines all need to make conclusions based on data, statistics provides them with tools essential for their advances. From player stats to computer models to simulate the effects of climate change statistics play a key role. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 31524]

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is the world's largest and most powerful laser system. Experimental physicist Tammy Ma explores how and why scientists and engineers are working hard to demonstrate sustainable fusion burn - the same reaction that occurs in the sun - to one day harness as a source of limitless, clean energy. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 31523]

Despite being diminutive in size, iChips have the potential to make big impacts on drug development and medical treatment testing. Lawrence Livermore National Lab is replicating the human body on a miniature scale, specifically focusing on brain physiology. Capturing human physiology outside the body allows scientists to probe and understand the human body without using human subjects. Staff scientist Elizabeth Wheeler describes how her group is using biology, 3D bioprinting, microchips and other technology to recreate human physiology outside the body. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 31475]

Computer simulations of earthquake shaking can provide valuable information on the expected intensity of shaking from earthquakes. Arthur Rodgers, a seismologist/geophysicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, covers seismic hazard in the Bay Area, describes computer simulations of past and possible future earthquakes and looks at the physics that underlies the numerical methods. Series: "Lawrence Livermore National Lab Science on Saturday" [Science] [Show ID: 29612]